Advanced International Journal for Research

E-ISSN: 3048-7641   •   Impact Factor: 9.11

A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

Call for Paper Volume 7, Issue 1 (January-February 2026) Submit your research before last 3 days of February to publish your research paper in the issue of January-February.
Submit Research Paper Join as a Reviewer

Plagiarism is checked by the leading plagiarism checker TurnItIn

Call for Paper

Volume 7 Issue 1
January-February 2026

Submit your research paper

Indexing Partners
Academia Advanced Sciences Index Bielefeld Academic Search Engine CiteSeer DRJI Google Scholar Independent Search Engine & Directory Network ISI (International Scientific Indexing) Issuu Mendeley Research Networks
RefSeek ResearcherId - Thomson Reuters ResearchGate Scirus Scribd Semantic Scholar UTeM - Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka Wiki for Call for Papers WorldCat Zenodo

Impact of Social Media on Access to Health-related Information: A Literature Review

Author(s) Dr. Vasundhra Atre, Prof. Dr. Kajal Sitlani, Prof. Dr. Swapnil Gadhave
Country India
Abstract Background
At present, information as to the preferences of social media users, on social media sources that they access for communication of health and medical related information, the situations in which they access the information and the reasons that they do it, is lacking.
Objective
To review current published literature to characterise the use of social media as a tool to access both health and medical related information and identify gaps in the existing literature to be able to suggest recommendations for areas of future in the space of healthcare communication.
Methods
This systematic literature review has been done by using a controlled keyword search on various databases such as PUBMED, Springer, MDPI and other sources, which led to the final inclusion of papers published from 2013 to 2024.

Result
The search identified 225 articles. Of these, 42 met the inclusion criteria. They included studies which explored the social media sources used, the reasons why the social media users accessed these sources and their expectations based on the condition or specialty that they were accessing. The studies were all cross-sectional, exploratory, conceptual, longitudinal, qualitative and descriptive in nature. The most commonly used terminologies used to refer to online access methods for health-related information were social media, Facebook, Internet, Twitter, Patient portal, Email, YouTube, LinkedIn, Social Networking Sites, online health community and Websites. The common five reasons that individuals accessed healthcare information was to avail information, look for support, to connect with those with similar experiences, understand specific disease conditions, search doctor’s reputation or level of expertise.
The type of information, resources perused, specialty searched and the reasons for the information search depended on whether it was for self or others, what the medical condition under consideration was and whether the search was only for information or there was a requirement for regular updates and a support system.
Conclusions
The penetration and access to social media is growing exponentially. Much of the healthcare related information being published on social media, is neither structured, nor reviewed and not cover all aspects desired by those accessing the information. The literature review identified three gaps as to the manner in which social media is used to access information relating to health. These suggested the need for randomised controls trials to help get a comprehensive understanding of the manner in which social media is accessed by social media users for health-related information, while exploring ways to monitor and improve both the trustworthiness and the quality of relevant health information.
Keywords social media, Facebook, Twitter, Patient portal, health related information, digital marketing
Published In Volume 7, Issue 1, January-February 2026
Published On 2026-01-18
DOI https://doi.org/10.63363/aijfr.2026.v07i01.3019
Short DOI https://doi.org/hbk6zf
View / Download PDF File

Share this



E-ISSN 3048-7641
CrossRef

CrossRef DOI is assigned to each research paper published in our journal.

AIJFR DOI prefix is
10.63363/aijfr

Downloads
Research Paper Format Copyright Permission Form and Undertaking Form Cover Page Vol 7 Isu 1Cover Page Vol 6 Isu 6Cover Page Vol 6 Isu 5

All research papers published on this website are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, and all rights belong to their respective authors/researchers.

CC-BY-SA Open Access

About AIJFR
Fees & Payment
Current Issue
Publication Archive 		Submit Research Paper
Track Submission Status
Publication Guidelines
Publication Ethics
Peer Review & Plagiarism 		Join as a Reviewer
Editors & Reviewers
Reviewer Referral Program
Get Reviewer Membership Certi. 		Website/Journal Policies
Usage Policy
Content Policies
Privacy Policy
Contact Us +91-9898-79-39-59 editor@aijfr.com